Mother's Day 2015

I almost believe that the month of May is busier than the the month of December for me. My calendar always gets booked fast for that month. I even find myself having to choose between things to do that is on the same day. I'm not complaining. I enjoy every minute of it. 

I wanted to blog about my Mother's Day this past Sunday. It was really special and so was the whole week leading up to the actual day. My kids made me the cutest cards and gifts. It was really sweet. 

The boys made me little pots with flowers in Boy's club at church. They couldn't wait to give them to me. Of course, Titus had to add "And try not to kill these, Mom."  Bless his heart. He grew a little flower in a cup last year in Kindergarten and I got so busy I never planted it and it died. It broke his little heart. 

Amelia made me a fancy little card that included pearls and she was very proud to give me that. She told me I had to keep it forever and ever to remember her by. 

Then Josiah made flower vases at school using Snapple Jars. He painted one purple and the other one turquoise. They were super cute. 

Sunday morning Amelia was the first one to come running to me to tell me Happy Mother's Day!  They had went shopping with Maynard the night before and bought me a few gifts. I got some bakeware, a few odds and ends, and a book by my favorite blogger that I had been wanting. I am trying to save it for the beach, but it is calling my name. 

We got dressed and left for church. We had the most sweetest Mother's Day service ever. 

They had a slide show of pictures each family had submitted of mothers and their children. It was sweet, but the best part was when my friend Heather spoke about her adoption process of her 3 little children. Then she had all 3 dedicated. It was just really sweet and I was glad to be there to hear her brag on God and what He had done for her family. 

My kids had more gifts for me from Sunday school. They couldn't hardly wait for me to open them because they had been gift wrapped. Amelia gave me another flower like the boys had Wednesday night. The boy's Sunday school class had made picture frames, painted in chalk paint, with pictures of their silhouettes. I absolutely loved them and couldn't believe how much they really looked like them. Except, Josiah's looked a lot like my Dad I think. 

I will treasure them always. 

We went to Old Town Grill for lunch and it was good as always and then home for a nap. 

After church that night, Maynard bought me a yummy cheesecake to finish the day off. 

I had a great Mother's Day and hope everyone else did too. I missed getting to spend it with my Mom, but I got to FaceTime her before church. It's easier to be a good Mom when you yourself had a great Mom growing up. 

Front yard camp out!

I have several memories growing up sleeping in tents in the back yard. We always enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. 

Last Friday, Maynard suggested building a fire in the fire pit and then the boys started asking to camp out in their tents. Maynard said he didn't care if I didn't care so out came the tents. (And our air mattress)

Amelia had went to her friend's sleepover without actually sleeping over though. I knew she would be disappointed when I went to pick her up, but if she knew we were camping out then she would be excited about coming back home. 

So while she partied, we started the fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was a beautiful evening just sitting around the fire. 

Our own special fire pit, but hey!  It works. 

It's so hard to keep these boys out of the fire. 

By now it was dark so I decided to go pick Amelia up. 

She wasn't too happy to see me. There were little girls everywhere and she was having a blast. It was too cute, but maybe she can stay when she is a little older. 

Back home it was dark and they were still infatuated with the fire. 

They asked Daddy to tell them stories. 

I was busy getting our tents ready. 

Time for bed!!!

Amelia had the perfect little spot, but she had her eye on our air mattress and knew we were more comfortable than she was. She sweet talked Maynard into letting her cuddle beside him before it was all over. 

These boys are just crazy. They broke out the headlamps to read books after we we went to sleep. The reason I know that is because the next morning their tent was full of books and comics. 

Even though we had an air mattress, it was hard to get comfortable. Finally, we fell asleep. I was hanging halfway on the air mattress and halfway in the floor. Oh well. At least I got some sleep. I hope Amelia was comfy. Ha ha

After a long night of tossing and turning it was morning time. 

They got the fire going again and I tried to go back to sleep, but it wasn't happening. The kids were too excited to have camped out all night. 

I woke up looking a little rough, but once everyone was out of my tent it ended up being pretty comfy. Then they started saying something about being hungry....

Miss Millie was cold. 

Playing in the fire while I fixed breakfast. 

It just wouldn't have been the same without cooking breakfast outside after a night of camping. 

We had a lot of fun and hopefully made a lot of memories. 

Our 2nd annual Mommy and Me Tea

Last year Amelia and I attended a Mommy and Me Tea at our local library. It was so special and we loved it.  We made sure to make plans to attend the next one. 

So Saturday, May 02, 2015 Amelia and I headed for the library. 

The flipped collar on my vest is killing me!

I talked Amelia into wearing a nice dress instead of a princess costume. I was surprised she didn't put up much of a fight. 

Our tea was punch instead, but I think that was fine with most of the princesses. 

Notice the napkin in her lap. Princesses always use their manners. Ha ha

We were having such a great Mommy and daughter time until Amelia's new bestie showed up. Then I got ditched. Lol

That's ok though. Amelia has only had teenagers for friends her whole life so I'm thankful for her little friends. 

After their "tea" and snacks it was craft time. 

What princess doesn't love shiny gems??

This was our picture from last year. Looks like she's losing that baby face. 

We had a good time and the boys are already looking forward to their "Dads and Dudes" time for Father's Day. Maynard is off on Saturdays now and he can take them this year. 

Pre-School Children's Church Lessons

I've enjoyed teaching Sunday School for many years now. I guess you could say I have a passion for it. 

I think my expertise is more with the younger kids. They're less judgmental and I love their vivid imaginations. They also accept everything you teach them. They have no doubts. They are quick to believe that God's word is true and that's what makes it so rewarding. 

I was asked to help teach Pre-School Children's Church where we are attending church now. 

Now let me be the first to tell you that it isn't easy. I have ages 3&4 and wow. The energy level is at an all time high. No matter how tough it gets, by the time their parents collect them they have said or done one tiny thing to make you be quick to forgive. It never fails. They are too precious and the good always outweighs the bad. 

To keep us from getting "burned out" me and Sis. Rebecca Gilpin alternate months. I really love that. It gives us a month off to rejunivate and start off fresh the next month. 

I thought I would do a blogpost about a few lessons I have done. I don't have pictures for all of them, but maybe I can do a few. 

My first month teaching was in February. I wanted my theme to be about HEARTS since it was Valentine's Day month. 

My first lesson was about Jesus healing the broken hearted. The kids really loved this lesson and that's when I fell in love with them. I talked about how Jesus loved them and how He cares when they're hurt or sad. 

Their craft was to bandage a heart back together again. They loved playing with band aids.  

I also brought my Corky doll from home that was my doll when I was a little girl. I told them that Corky was hurt and they needed to care for him and help him feel better just like Jesus helps us. 

We went through quite a few more band aids, but by the time the lesson was over, Corky was bandaged and feeling all better. 

The next Sunday I taught about Jesus knocking on their hearts. I taught about how I got saved at an early age of 4 and how Jesus could save them too.

We sang "Come into my heart" and we played a game. The game actually got us into trouble. I was letting them go out into the hallway one at a time and knock on the door. Then I would say their name and say "Come on in."  It was such a simple game, but I was trying to teach them the simplicity of opening their heart's door to Jesus. We ended up being too loud because someone left the balcony door open and everyone in the sanctuary could hear us. Oops!!  Good thing Maynard came up to tell us they could hear us. Ha ha. I will admit to that not being the first time for being too loud in Sunday school. I can't help it. Sunday school is fun and exciting and it's hard to be quiet sometimes. 

Our craft was very simple. I've learned the more simple the better with them. 

Our 3rd lesson of the month was a full fledged Valentine's Party. 

It was a snow day and we had our party in the kitchen. I made them special treats, they decorated their own cupcakes, played games, and passed out Valentine cards. It was a lot of fun and work!!!

If I'm not mistaken, I posted a picture or two under my Valentine's day post so I won't put another picture. 

The 4th and final Sunday of that month was another snow day. I kind of assumed I wouldn't be teaching that day. I asked to the Sunday before because I had a party already planned. I received a text a little over an hour before church started from the Pastor's wife asking me if I was planning to teach that afternoon. Truth be known, I hadn't, but she asked me to so I said I would. On the way to church I came up with a quick lesson and ran in the Dollar store for craft supplies. 

I ended up teaching about how God makes us all different, but we're still individually important to God. We played a game of same and different. An example would be if you have brown hair come stand by me. Or if you wear glasses come stand by me. We played that forever and I was about to run out of things to say. 

For their craft we made snow (like we needed more snow) out of shaving cream and glue. 

I failed to realize these kiddos were just babies and that they were going to eat the glue and shaving cream. You would think one bite would discourage them from eating anymore of it, but that wasn't the case for one little one. Ha ha

That was it. I made it through February and had the month of March off. 

All too soon it was April and I actually was looking forward to teaching them again. Sis. Rebecca gladly passed the torch and I was in the classroom with them once again. 

Sis. Rebecca had given me a few tips that had worked for her so I thought I would try it. 

This time when I first picked the kids up I took them to a different classroom for some playtime. They already had been in Sunday School for 45 mins so they have plenty of energy to burn before I started teaching them and making them sit still again. I let them play about 20 minutes and then we have clean up time. After that we go back to our regular classroom. When they go in there, they know it's lesson and craft time and it's not as hard to calm them down. It has worked out great for me so far. 

My first Sunday was Easter. 

I used Easter Eggs and made my own Resurrection Eggs. The kids loved this and enjoyed being called upon to get to open another egg and find out what was inside. 

I wouldn't call on them to get a turn opening an egg unless they were quiet and their hands were in their lap. This was torture to them, but they made it though it. What's funny is that I noticed that the rest of the month I would catch some of them sitting there with their hands in their laps when they wanted me to call on them. I love it and always try to call on them if I see them doing that without being reminded too. These kids sure love getting praised on!!

We played a game I had made up. I brought a blanket, big box, and flowers. Each student took a turn hiding under the table and I covered it with a blanket and put the box in front. Then we would have a crier who would carry the flowers to the tomb and cry. In the meantime Jesus had already escaped and when we jerked the blanket away Jesus was gone.  As I type this I remembered that I already blogged about this in my Easter post. Sorry if I'm repeating myself. 

Anyway, the lesson went great and we ran out of time and didn't even have a craft to do that day. 

The 2nd Sunday of that month my lesson was about "The House of God". I taught them about behaving in "big church". I brought along a helper this time to help teach. 

Meet Officer Todd Sent From God. 

My how these children love this puppet. 

Maynard is my Puppeteer and he's always behind the puppet stand before I bring my class in. It works out perfectly. 

The puppet is actually in honor of my brother Todd that is a police officer. 

He kind of recaps what I teach about with a story or testimony of some sort. This time when they walked in all the chairs had been knocked over. I made a call to the police to see if we could find out who had done God's house this way. As I called the police, Officer Todd popped out the puppet stand and scared them to death. Ha ha. It was a good scare though. They loved it. He was asking them who knocked over the chairs. What was hilarious is the kids were blaming each other. One bus kid named off someone I didn't even know, but it ended up being a bigger brother of his. They were cracking me up. After the lesson Officer Todd passed out church badges for them that got put on their shirts. They could only get a badge if they knew how to act in "big church". 

Our craft turned out pretty cute too. 

I forgot to take a picture of the final product, so I screened shot my Pintrest page where I got the idea from. I'm not going to lie. Some of my stick people turned out looking pretty creepy. That ended up being way time consuming, but my kiddos enjoyed helping me at home. 

Ok, the 3rd Sunday of the month our lesson was about "Believing God's Word". This was one of my most favorite lessons with them. They were so so so cute. 

We had our lesson about God's word and then we sang that song called "I believe the bible."  They each were questioned in if they truly believed every story in the bible. Then they got to hold a bible up and we would sing that song again, but this time insert their name into the song. Such as.... Elijah believes the Bible. Elijah believes the bible. Elijah believes the bible is the Word of God. Officer Todd Sent From God, then presented them their own New Testament Bibles. You would have thought you handed them kids a million bucks. They were so proud of their very own bible.

Our craft was super simple once again. 

So for my 4th and final Sunday for the month of April, I taught an object lesson about God's protection using an umbrella. 

The night before we had some bad storms and it was kind of cloudy that Sunday so it was perfect for my lesson. I taught about how God protects us and keeps us safe just like an umbrella protects us from the rain. We had a short visit from Officer Todd and then we did a cute little craft that wasn't so simple this time. 

Another screen shot I took because I couldn't find the original picture I took. We used cupcake liners and made little umbrellas that went along with our lesson. 

For our game I let them hold an umbrella and I sprayed water on them with a water bottle. The object was for them to protect themselves with the umbrella and not get sprayed. Then we changed it up a bit and I held the umbrella and they sprayed me. They giggled and laughed and loved it. 

So even though we're having fun they are still learning about God. I take teaching my class seriously and try to always do my best. I pray that I am planting seeds in their hearts that they will never forget. 

A big shout out goes to Maynard for the awesome puppet shows and for Sis. Jackie Gilpin who helps me every Sunday. I couldn't do it without her and she's a great help to me. 

I just thought I would blog about my lessons so far and maybe give you all a few ideas to help you. 

I may not ever do these posts again, but I can if you all are interested.